Huayu: Enjoy Yourself

Chapter 56 A Rendezvous at the Bar (Bonus chapter for the generous orderer, this is my last ripple~)

January 27, 1998. 🐉💎 ❻➈𝕊ĦＵ᙭.¢𝔬ᗰ ♛👻

Lunar New Year's Eve.

In a courtyard house in Beijing, Chen An was having New Year's Eve dinner with his parents.

The newly bought TV was playing this year's Spring Festival Gala.

"We all have a home, and its name is China."

There are many brothers and sisters, and the scenery is beautiful.

The song "Great China," performed by Andy Lau, Zhang Xinzhe, and Mao Ning, is full of festive cheer.

His parents both liked it very much, but Chen An's voice sounded like it came from a bygone era.

Especially when the princess and Nayoung went on stage to sing together:

Come on, come on, let's meet in 1998.

Come on, come on, let's meet in '98!

We agreed to meet under the silvery moonlight.

Let's meet in warm affection.

The Mickey Mouse version of the princess has an ethereal and melodious voice, and Chen An knew that this song would immediately become a hit across the country.

Nowadays, the Spring Festival Gala is a must-watch program for many people and a great place to become famous overnight. The importance of the Spring Festival Gala is self-evident.

"Hey, can you be on the Spring Festival Gala?" The mother, who was addicted to watching the show, wondered if she could see her son, who was so talented, on the Spring Festival Gala.

Although Chen An knew that his mother didn't really understand what he did, only that he was a celebrity, she was still a little confused:

"Mom, I'm a director, I don't know how to act."

"Isn't that unacceptable?"

"No way, I arranged for someone else to put on the show."

Chen An only knew how to explain his nature to her, so he gave a rudimentary explanation using a simple comparison.

"I was wondering why no one bothered you when you were so good at hiding things. Turns out you're even more capable." Although Mom didn't understand these things, she knew that if you were in charge of people, you must be even more capable.

As for Chen An, he's just someone you watch for fun on the Spring Festival Gala. If you want him to direct, you might as well kill him; he's much more troublesome than a movie director.

My buddy, making movies is enough for me; I don't want to do anything fancy.

After the Spring Festival Gala ended, the three chatted for a while and then went to sleep.

After the Spring Festival, Chen An had some free time, so he took his parents on a tour of the capital city over the next few days.

They had never left their hometown in their entire lives, but this time Chen An showed them around properly.

I visited Tiananmen Square, the Summer Palace, and several other places.

Chen An has a car, so it's convenient for him to come and go.

It wasn't until the sixteenth day of the first lunar month, after the family reunion dinner, that Chen An saw his parents off onto the plane.

"Mom left some food for you at home and made a lot of dumplings. You've loved them since you were little, so eat more and don't go hungry." Before leaving, his mother still kept nagging and caring for Chen An.

She had some free time before, so she cooked a lot of dishes for Chen An, including dumplings and glutinous rice balls, all of which were Chen An's favorites.

Before boarding, he kept talking to Chen An, and Chen An listened patiently until he passed through security and boarded the plane.

The old father remained silent as always, only patting Chen An on the shoulder before leaving, telling him to take good care of himself.

He didn't say anything more, but Chen An understood that there were some things he hadn't said.

1997 has passed, and 1998 has officially arrived.

Not long after, Chen An also started school, and the final semester of the Beijing Film Academy officially began.

He also needs to start preparing his graduation thesis, but it's relatively easy for Chen An.

I plan to write a film analysis paper on "Run Lola Run," and I'm absolutely confident in my ability to do so.

I can write whatever I want, it's my own movie anyway.

Instead, I was stumped by the graduation film. I thought that just shooting any old film wouldn't suit my current status.

The short film won the Golden Lion for Best Short Film at the Venice Film Festival, and the feature film won the first Best Director award for a Chinese-language film at the Cannes Film Festival.

With its domestic box office success, it seems rather perfunctory for a recently popular director to casually make a graduation film.

Just as Chen An was troubled, his understanding alma mater had already learned of his troubles.

After all, he is a well-known and outstanding student from my school, so I should take extra care of him.

They waived Chen An's graduation video assignment; he only needed to submit his thesis.

However, although the school wanted to waive the requirement, you are, after all, a well-known and established director, and it wouldn't sound good if people talked about it.

So let's compromise and postpone the film so you can take your time to think it over.

All you need to do is directly pursue a master's degree; you can save the video recordings for later and include them together. That's how you perfectly solve the problem.

Not only are there direct admission slots, but tuition is also waived, and the school will take care of all other miscellaneous things for you.

Chen An was very moved and asked if he could skip reading it.

Next, Chen An wants to focus on developing his film business. He plans to become not only a producer but also a distributor, and he has been studying English for almost two years.

If you want to go to Hollywood to earn US dollars, you definitely won't have the time.

The school also kindly told them to get lost.

You don't have to come in person, but you definitely have to read it.

Chen An could only passively accept this choice, and the dean's face began to become kind and approachable!

After finishing his business, Chen An was driving home when he received a call from Han Sanping:

"Hey bro, 'Little Life' has finished its run too. It made 37 billion yen in two months!"

Chen An was also taken aback when he heard the number; he hadn't expected that Xiao Rizi really liked the movie that much.

Before the release of "Hero", the highest-grossing Chinese film was Jet Li's "Shaolin Temple", a magical film that grossed 1.6 million yuan when the ticket price in mainland China was only one cent.

With 37 billion yuan, it is now the highest-grossing Chinese-language film on the market, breaking the previous record set by "Shaolin Temple" and ranking first!

Is this the power of exporting to the domestic market? Chen An thought to himself unconsciously.

"Okay, okay, I'm driving. We'll talk when we get back. I'll call you then." Reckless driving brings tears to loved ones' eyes. Chen An decided to talk to them when he got back.

Han Sanping on the other end of the phone said, "Okay, I'll hang up now." Then she hung up the phone, looking very hurried.

As Chen An, who had just put his phone away in his car, looked out at the bustling traffic and muttered to himself, "I've made it."

The domestic box office revenue this time is 30 million. First, a special business tax of 3.3% and a special fund for film industry of 5% are paid. The remaining 91.7% is the net box office revenue.

The revenue sharing could begin, but the theaters initially wanted to take 67%. That's how greedy theaters are these days. It wasn't until "Hero" was released that Zhang Weiping fought back against the theaters and secured a 43% share of the revenue.

The remaining 33% belongs to Chen An and Beijing Film Studio. Generally speaking, Beijing Film Studio also needs to take a share of the distribution fees.

However, after discussing it in advance, Chen An did not ask for a director's fee, and Beijing Film Studio did not ask for a distribution fee either, and the two parties split the profits equally.

Chen An will receive a little over 4.5 million, but after paying taxes, he will only receive a little over 3 million.

However, since the film was released in two parts, the box office revenue of the first part had already recouped the costs, so this revenue sharing was pure profit.

Of course, this only includes the film's box office revenue; other aspects such as copyright revenue are not included.

However, a contract had been signed in advance, stipulating that the copyright belonged to Chen An, and the Beijing Film Studio would only enjoy 50% of the profit sharing.

The same goes for "Run Lola Run".

In Hollywood, if a film has a high box office, the production company can take 60%, which is due to the power of the Big Six studios.

Of course, if the box office is not good, they can only take 40%, and the range is fluctuating. It's all about profit, between 40% and 60%.

On the contrary, Xiao Ri Zi (小日子) shares box office revenue 50/50 with theaters. Although it can't compare to Hollywood, it's stable.

37 billion yen is equivalent to nearly 1.8 million yuan, which is six times the domestic box office!

The distributor takes 20% of the total box office revenue, and even less because it's not a local film.

That's several times the income in China.

Both Chen An and Han Sanping will receive more than 20 million RMB before tax.

Forget making a fortune, this is practically robbing a bank!

The total cost is only three million, which is one and a half million per square meter.

More than ten times the return!

Chen An originally thought that not losing money would be a win, but he didn't expect to make a fortune, although it couldn't compare to the profits from "Run Lola Run".

But it cannot be compared; the right timing, the right location, and the right people are all indispensable to make this possible.

If it weren't for Chen An's youth, the groundbreaking innovation of "Run Lola Run," and the fact that the Cannes Film Festival dared to award him the prize at the age of twenty, it would have been impossible.

This kind of opportunity is unlikely to come again.

But this time, "Little Forest" is a real battle to win so much at the box office, and it was funded by itself!

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(End of this chapter)